Change of the project acronim from INNOVAQUA to INNOV-H2O approved at the 15th Monitoring Committee – 15.7.2014.
The significant decrease in the amount of fish due to the heavy exploitation of the fishing grounds, including the Adriatic Sea, is leading to the rapid development of the aquaculture industry. Sustainability of aquaculture largely depends on optimal environmental conditions, adequate animal feeding and effective prevention of infectious diseases.
INNOVAQUA is a network of 8 partners, including universities (University of Trieste, Udine, Padova and Nova Gorica), applied research and development institutions (Istituto Zooprofilattico delle Venezie and Kmetijsko gozdarska zbornica Slovenije Kmetijsko gozdarski zavod Kranj) and companies focussed on aquaculture (Vodomec d.o.o., Shoreline soc. coop.).
This network acts as a single entity, by sharing expertise, infrastructures and human capital. The latter consists of 32 experts, divided in four main sub-groups: a) environmental and biology scientists; b) veterinarians; c) consultants in environmental protection and fish farming; d) fish farmers.
The mission of INNOVAQUA is to create a permanent network of academic/research institutions and fish farming enterprises. Rounds of meetings involving researchers, veterinarias and farmers will be organised with the support of specialised mediators, aiming at identifying actions to improve the environmental conditions of farming and fish health. Researcher will identify, develop and test innovative fish immunization schemes, new probiotics and biomarkers for diagnosis of fish disease and monitoring of therapeutic efficacy. These innovations will be tested on the two most common species involved in fish farming, i.e. sea bass and trout.
planned activities:
The project will be coordinated by the team managers of the Partners and it will be implemented by a newly recruited staff of young researchers and technologists. Activities will include: a) an initial training on the aims of Innovaqua; b) technological/scientific training on topics relevant for aquaculture; c) complementary training on enterprise management, innovation and technology transfer, intellectual property protection, project design and project management.
The project is highly innovative. On one side, it promotes the active involvement of the young researchers who will get in touch with the production sites. On the other side, it will be jointly developed by a strict collaboration among researchers, veterinarians and producers, and by using participatory methods such as Forums and Thematic Tables managed by specialized mediators.
planned results:
1. Cross-border recruitment of 6 young researchers joining to multidisciplinary programs of training.
2. Joint scientific, technical and management training for the new employed people through stages, courses and seminars at the research institutions and stages at the fish farming.
3. Formation of a working group involved in the collection of critical situations, problems, opportunities and needs of the fish farmers, making at least 20 interviews and thematic meetings.
4. Organization and support of at least 10 meetings between researchers and interested people in order to offer possible biotechnological solutions to the emerged criticality and to reach a executive definition.
5. Experimentations at the experimental fish tanks of the PPs of some technological innovations studied by researchers and concerning the environmental biomonitoring, animal feeding and prophylaxis of infectious diseases.
6. At least 4 agreements of technological cooperation between producers and research institutions.
7. Technological transfer of the identified innovations to some production sites, where the trained young researchers will be the main actors.
8. Publication of report regarding success event about the technological transfer and good practices transferred between partners and to the market.
9. Plan for project dissemination and exploitation of the achievable results.
10. Achievement of a web portal on changing and sharing of experiences, expertise and results.
Projects result will be disseminated both in the scientific community, which will feed-back scientific evaluations and suggestions, and to the final stakeholders (general public, consumers, producers, public institutions, etc.). In the latter case, simple and efficient communication methods will be adopted. Innovations will result from participative approaches, involving farmers, veterinarians and researchers, so laying the ground for a knowledge-based economy. The producers will be enabled to improve the quality and market value of their products; furthermore, they will be encouraged to recruit highly qualified young personnel to improve their business. As a final result, consumers will have access to better food.

List of beneficiaries

The list of beneficiaries, the names of providers and their projects, and the amount of public funding for projects is being made publicly available, each year in February, in line with Article 7 of Commission Regulation (EC) No 1828/2006 and the European Transparency Initiative (COCOF April 23, 2008).